Mixing Clowns in a tank - Live rock as barricade

[mling]

Is it true that you should not mix Clown fishes ?  I have a Tomato Clown as the first and only fish in my 45 G tank.  I was going to get some Percula Clowns and also a Clarkii Clown.  The LFS guy tells me that this is a bad idea as Tomato Clowns are aggressive towards other Clowns and Perculas will end up dead eventually.  

 

Anyone has experience with mixing Clowns ?

 

Has anyone tried using a wall of live rock to separate non compatible species ?  Is this a silly idea ?

[mutley29]

I purchased Tomato clowns for my tank a while back now, i already had a false perc in there, the tomatos were unrelenting in their pestering of all the fish in my tank, even my Flame Hawk and Australian Dottyback, which are bigger, more aggresive fish.

Had to remove the tomato clowns and just gave them away as they were to much trouble.

 

As for the LR wall, you'd have to make sure there were no gaps small enough for a clown to squeeze through, you could try putting some egg crate down the center of the tank and pile the LR either side.

HTH

 

Anton rk]]

[traveller7]

Asking for trouble with the proposed mix of clowns in smaller then a 6' tank.  Even then is quite a risk.

[AquariaUSA]

We tried separating a few clownfish pairs with 1/2" eggcrate in 33longs...they still managed to squeeze through (especially the bigger clowns!). Have no idea how they did it, but they did. Tomato, Maroon, and Clarkii clowns are pretty determined to get their way so best to keep them separate from more docile species.